The intensity of the winter Siberian High has significantly negative correlations with Arctic sea ice concentration anomalies from the previous autumn to winter seasons in the Eastern Arctic Ocean and Siberian marginal seas. Our results indicate that autumn-winter Arctic sea ice concentration and concurrent sea surface temperature anomalies are responsible for the winter Siberian High and surface air temperature anomalies over the mid-high latitudes of Eurasia and East Asia. Numerical experiments also support this conclusion, and consistently show that the low sea ice concentration causes negative surface air temperature anomalies over the mid-high latitudes of Eurasia. A mechanism is proposed to explain the association between autumn-winter sea ice concentration and winter Siberian High. Our results also show that September sea ice concentration provides a potential precursor for winter Siberian High that cannot be predicted using only tropical sea surface temperatures. In the last two decades (1990–2009), a strengthening trend of winter Siberian High along with a decline trend in surface air temperature in the mid-high latitudes of the Asian Continent have favored the recent frequent cold winters over East Asia. The reason for these short-term trends in winter Siberian High and surface air temperature are discussed.
The linkage between the Asian-Pacific oscillation （APO） and the precipitation over central eastern China in spring is preliminarily addressed by use of the observed data. Results show that they correlate very well, with the positive （negative） phase of APO tending to increase （decrease） the precipitation over central eastern China. Such a relationship can be explained by the atmospheric circulation changes over Asia and the North Pacific in association with the anomalous APO. A positive phase of APO, characterized by a positive anomaly over Asia and a negative anomaly over the North Pacific in the upper-tropospheric temperature, corresponds to decreased low-level geopotential height （H） and increased high-level H over Asia, and these effects are concurrent with increased low-level H and decreased high-level H over the North Pacific. Meanwhile, an anticyclonic circulation anomaly in the upper troposphere and a cyclonic circulation anomaly in the lower troposphere are introduced in East Asia, and the low-level southerly wind is strengthened over central eastern China. These changes provide advantageous conditions for enhanced precipitation over central eastern China. The situation is reversed in the negative phase of APO, leading to reduced precipitation in this region.
We here report our recent research results on the climatic features of Tibetan thermodynamic functions and their impacts on the regional climates of the Northern Hemisphere. The results show that the thermodynamic processes over the Tibetan Plateau not only strongly influence the Asian monsoon and precipitation, but also modulate the atmospheric circulation and climate over North America and Europe through stimulating the large-scale teleconnections such as the Asian-Pacific oscillation and affect the atmospheric circulation over the southern Indian Ocean. The Tibetan climate may be affected by sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific. On the other hand, the Tibetan climate also affects the atmosphere-ocean interactions in the tropics and mid-latitudes of the Pacific by the atmospheric circulation over the North Pacific. In spring and summer, the thermodynamic anomalies on the plateau affect the subtropical high pressure, the Hadley circulation, and the intertropical convergence zone over the Pacific, and then modulate the development of the El Ni-o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). It is necessary to study the forecasting methods for the development of ENSO from the Tibetan climate anomaly. This result also embodies the essence of interactions among land, atmosphere, and ocean over the Northern Hemisphere. Since the previous studies focused on impacts of the plateau on climates in the Asian monsoon regions, it is essential to pay more attention to studying the roles of the plateau in the Northern Hemispheric and even global climates.
In this study, the clear sky hourly global and net solar irradiances at the surface determined using SUNFLUX, a simple parameterization scheme, for three stations （Gaize, Naqu, and Lhasa） on the Tibetan Plateau were evaluated against observation data. Our modeled results agree well with observations. The correlation coefficients between modeled and observed values were 〉 0.99 for all three stations. The relative error of modeled results, in average was 〈 7%, and the root-mean-square variance was 〈 27 W m-2. The solar irradiances in the radiation model were slightly overestimated compared with observation data; there were at least two likely causes. First, the radiative effects of aerosols were not included in the radiation model. Second, solar irradiances determined by thermopile pyranometers include a thermal offset error that causes solar radiation to be slightly underestimated. The solar radiation absorbed by the ozone and water vapor was estimated. The results show that monthly mean solar radiation absorbed by the ozone is 〈 2% of the global solar radiation （〈 14 W m-2）. Solar radiation absorbed by water vapor is stronger in summer than in winter. The maximum amount of monthly mean solar radiation absorbed by water vapor can be up to 13% of the global solar radiation （95 W m-2）. This indicates that water vapor measurements with high precision are very important for precise determination of solar radiation.
Observational and reanalysis data are used to investigate the different relationships between boreal spring sea surface temperature （SST） in the Indian and Pacific oceans and summer precipitation in China. Partial correlation analysis reveals that the effects of spring Indian Ocean SST （IO SST） and Pacific SST （PSST） anomalies on summer precipitation in China are qualitatively opposite. When IO SST anomalies are considered independently of PSST anomalies, precipitation decreases south of the Yangtze River, in most areas of Inner Mongolia, and in some parts of Liaoning Province, and increases in the Yangtze River valley, parts of southwestern and northern China, northeastern Inner Mongolia, and Heilongjiang Province. This results in a negative-positive-negative-positive pattern of precipitation anomalies in China from south to north. When PSST anomalies （particularly those in the Nin o3.4 region） are considered independently of IO SST anomalies, the pattern of precipitation anomalies in China is positive-negative-positive-negative from south to north. The genesis of summer precipitation anomalies in China is also examined when El Nin o-Southern Oscillation （ENSO） signals are removed from the ocean and atmosphere. An anticyclonic low-level wind anomaly forms in the South China Sea-Northwest Pacific area when the IO SST anomaly （SSTA） is warm and the Northwest Pacific SSTA is cold. This anticyclonic anomaly substantially influences summer precipitation in China. Anomalous warming of tropical IO SST induces positive geopotential height anomalies in the subtropics and an east-west dipole pattern in midlatitudes over Asia. These anomalies also affect summer precipitation in China.
Impacts of land models and initial land conditions （ICs） on the Asian summer monsoon, especially its onset, were investigated using the NCEP Climate Forecast System （CFS）. Two land models, the Oregon State University （OSU） land model and the NCEP, OSU, Air Force, and Hydrologic Research Laboratory （Noah） land model, were used to get parallel experiments NCEP/Department of Energy （DOE） Global Reanalysis 2 System （GLDAS）. The experiments also used land ICs from the （GR2） and the Global Land Data Assimilation Previous studies have demonstrated that, a systematic weak bias appears in the modeled monsoon, and this bias may be related to a cold bias over the Asian land mass. Results of the current study show that replacement of the OSU land model by the Noah land model improved the model＇s cold bias and produced improved monsoon precipitation and circulation patterns. The CFS predicted monsoon with greater proficiency in E1 Nifio years, compared to La Nifia years model in monsoon predictions for individual years. and the Noah model performed better than the OSU These improvements occurred not only in relation to monsoon onset in late spring but also to monsoon intensity in summer. Our analysis of the monsoon features over the India peninsula, the Indo-China peninsula, and the South Chinese Sea indicates different degrees of improvement. Furthermore, a change in the land models led to more remarkable improvement in monsoon prediction than did a change from the GR2 land ICs to the GLDAS land ICs.
This study analyzes the inter-decadal variations of rainfall over southern China in spring (March-April-May) using the observed precipitation data for 1979-2004. The result shows that the variations of spring rainfall over southeastern China are opposite to those over and southwestern China in both inter-annual and inter-decadal time scales. The precipitation over south- ern China exhibits an apparent inter-decadal shift in the late 1980s. The accumulated spring rainfall has reduced 30% over southeastern China after the late 1980s, whereas it has increased twice as much over southwestern China. The atmospheric circulations related to this shift show that an abnormal high at lower and middle troposphere appears over Asian middle and high latitudes, accompanied by stronger-than-normal northerly wind over eastern China. Consequently, the wet air flows from tropical oceans are weakened over southern China, resulting in less rainfall over southeastern China and more rainfall over southwestern China. Furthermore, the anomalous atmospheric circulation over Asian middle and high latitudes is closely related to the inter-decadal downward shift of Eurasian spring snow in the late 1980s, indicating that the inter-decadal shift of Eurasian spring snow in the late 1980s is probably an important factor in the decadal shift of spring rainfall over southern China.
